At the time when I started with digital art, I never thought that I’d ever find my own style creating mermaids. I had few images of the model Fuchsfee stock from DeviantArt laying on my computer, yet, I didn’t know what to start with them. The idea come up about a year ago, when I went to take some shots of koi fishes for my personal stock. I sat myself on the edge of the pond, in order not to scare the fishes, and have observed their movements in the water. Than, all of a sudden, I had a vision of one of the Geisha images (from the mentioned model), as if her face would appear from the bottom of the pond to the water surface. The image was literally floating into my direction. In this very moment the idea was born to create mythical creatures inspired by the Japanese folklore about Ningyos, creatures similar to the western mermaids myths. Ningyo originally means half-human / half-fish and they aren’t very beautiful creatures. In order to do something very personal or unique, I turned the Ningyos into beautiful mermaids, morphing them with Maiko/Geisha depictions. To my surprise, I was able to create more than just two images. My good Deviantart friends and followers have encouraged me to continue with the work, so I keep creating and telling new stories with every single image. Technically, I want to keep the artwork as photo manipulation rather than digital painting. I do use painting techniques and filters in the final steps, however, I don’t want to overdo it. The artwork looks more “realistic” this way.

If you think that Photomanipulation is an easy thing to do, than I can tell you, that you are very wrong. That's what I thought at first before I even started to practice. Like many other digital artists, I was hooked by the artwork I had seen around the web. And I thought, you just need to put few images together, and that's it. But it isn't. So where is the problem? Photomanipulation is a form of visual art that is not thought in any art schools or academies. So, you are pretty much forced to learn & practice on your own. Of course, there are plenty of tutorials and video files that you able to learn from, but this all won't make you a professional digital artist in short time. Not even if you have a bunch of HQ stock files and tools like Adobe products. Carlos Quevedo is one of my fave digital artist who has academic degree in graphic design. However, in one of his interviews, he reveals that he was going through the same learning and frustration process like any other photomanipulation artists.

I had started with digital art (if I can call all that CRAP that I was doing in the past a digita art) sometime in 2005 and have given up on it couple of times, out of frustration and disappointment, even just because of the fact that I was not able to master the pen tool, neither in photoshop or illustrator. Using the pen tool would remind me on manual suing or stiching that I really dislike so much. However, inspite the "drama" about it, I kept coming back to DeviantArt and other sites, collecting new tutorials and creating new PM compositions. It wasn't working well until November last year, when I decided to take a part in a short challenge which was offered by The Imaginarium, one of the PM groups on DA. The short challenge was about redoing one of your old works with the help from professional digital artists and volunteers on DA. With the guidance of my mentor, all of a sudden, I was able to create a better version of my old work. I had issues with right blending and light techniques. Additionally, I had figured out that I was not doing the process of digital painting (smuge, dodge & burn, matte painting, etc.) in correct order.

So, I had spent again many hours a day practicing & learning, creating mostly simple compositions. And my digital artwork has started to show better skills. I guess, that I had crossed the line between beginner and intermediate levels.And last week, when one of my deviations was chosen as a Daily Deviation, I was really surprized and happy at same time. Surprized because I never thought that I'm a potential candiadate for a DD and happy while, after so many years of sweat, my art finally bears fruits. I was literally working my index finger off (still using notebook without mouse) and, right now, I feel so released. I'm looking forward to develop my skills and to reach the professional level (that includes the use of pen tool too, arrrrgh!). Inspite having so many different ideas, I'm curious about the development of my own style, but I'm not going to stress this too much. As long as I have fun and love what I'm doing I really don't care about it.

Couple of times I had gotten invitations from YouPic Team and since December 1st, 2015 I'm a new member there. It seems to be a good decission to join this non-commercial community since my images are getting good exposure and I have daily 20+ followers. Over 7700 total experience the very first week speaks for itself. I will be uploading frequently new and old images for rating. Feel free to join me on YouPic.

Things are going very fast lately. :) I was very creative the past few months, making at least one photo manipulation per day. Two weeks ago I was taking a break for one day to be able to attend the the Tattoo Basel 2015 Street Parade. The best shots are uploaded to my ViewBug gallery .

The Got Lookability Headshot Photo Contest was held on ViewBug by the famous photographer and ex-model Peter Hurley. I didn't know right away If I should participate or not. The contest was very challenging and I was a bit intimidated by all those professional photographers who have amazing images. I have hardly an experience with people photography needless to say with headshots. But after few days of torturing my head I had decided to submit the image "Harlequin in Gold BW". It is just a snapshot taken during the carnival street parade. And to my surprise this image landed in the Top 10 Class most voted the first week and than the second week as well.

Many thanks to Photo Trifecta, to Peter Hurley, to ViewBug and everyone who was voting for my image. I'm very happy :)

One of my first encounters with digital art was photo manipulation. I was fascinated by the artworks that I had seen published in an article by Web Designer Depot in 2005. So I decided to try it out myself right away. But back then my skills were not good enough and I was focused more on other projects. Recently I had felt strong desire to to work again on photo maniuplations. This time my work is bearing fruits. The result of my work are colorful, surreal, fantasy, dreamy or moody compositions. ou can find them in my DeviantArt Gallery and on Fine Art America.

Four years have passed since my last participation at the Carnival of Basel street parade. I have added new photos to my DeviantArt Gallery and have decided to upload best shots to 500px and ViewBug. All images have been well rated.

Few days ago I was really shocked to find out that one of my t-shirt designs for DBH's daily competitions was featured in the Nopue Magazine in 2012. I had already given up on t-shirt designs, knowing that my skills back than were not good enough to be successful. In 2011 my computer crashed and I wasn't able to afford a new one right away. I no longer had the equipement to learn to use Adobe Illustrator.

These good news make me wanna re-think my decission. I have bought a used laptop and I'm looking forward to buy new software.